Stay Strong
by xsempiternal-sentimentx
Summary: "It's easier to pretend to know something you don't than to pretend to know nothing when you know everything." If someone else had found him that night what would've been revealed under the stone-cold mask? R


**Story: If someone else had seen the crying Draco Malfoy what secrets would be revealed at the Slytherin Prince's unavoidable breaking point?**

**Set: Half-Blood Prince, Boy's Bathroom Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy crying.**

**A/N: In the book this scene would've been the one that Harry used Sectumsempra in.**

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DISCALIMER: No, I do not own Harry Potter, only the plot of my story.

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Stay Strong

I watched as Draco Malfoy ran out of the Great Hall. Past me and everyone else, I felt a coldness on my arm and looked down to see water, a single drop.

I stood up and followed the retreating figure keeping the silhouette just in sight. I saw the figure turn a corner and disappear. Curious to find him I walked around in circles not fully understanding why I wanted to. I heard a faint sound coming from the boys bathroom and the sound of drops of water hitting the floor. I walked in and saw his figure hunched over a sink, tears free-falling onto the tiled floor. He looked up at the mirror above the sink and in that mirror I saw his face twist with loathing. He looked down at the floor again.

"What are you doing here Granger?" The voice was ice-cold and sounded overly-controlled, the sort of control that would break with the slightest wrong move.

"Why do you want to know?" I countered his question with my own. His mouth turned upwards in a sneer. It looked out of place though, when his eyes were red from the tears.

"Well in case you haven't noticed this happens to be a bathroom, for boys." I ignored the jibe, meant to put me on defensive.

"Why are you crying? I thought you were the 'Slytherin Prince' ,cold-hearted and emotionless?"

His control snapped and he pulled out his wand. I took out my own and calmly pointed it at his face.

"Think again, Malfoy. Before you hex me."

His wand hand trembled and fell to the floor. I kept my gaze on him and he glared back at me.

"Why?"

My question, whispered quietly, carefully had the effect of a stunning spell. Malfoy fell on the floor tears breaking out staining his robes. Cautiously I approached him, when he didn't move I sat down next to him. He looked at me. Crying like he was he looked different, like a mask had been pulled off his face.

"Why do you do it?"

"I don't know..."

"You don't know?" I repeated, my voice was laced with sarcasm "Or you don't want to tell me"

I watched him carefully and for the first time since I saw him at the beginning of the year I noticed things in Malfoy's features I hadn't noticed before. His skin had paled even more than his natural white colour and looked like it had a greenish tinge to it. His eyes usually a steel metallic blue-grey still held its colour but they didn't look the same. I remembered whenever Malfoy passed me , Harry and Ron in the corridors on the way to class he would never cease to drop a line, smirking remark or the like. His eyes were always shining back then...not with happiness but a sense of superiority. His eyes now, they were dead, the shine gone. No emotion.

"I don't know,"

He raised his dry eyes to meet mine and his glare bore into me. Seeing that he wasn't going to explain I carefully raised one eyebrow and stared back at him.

"I mean it," he says "I don't know why I agreed to this, I don't know why he chose me, I don't know why I said yes, I don't know why I let him brand me with his cursed mark."

His words were confusing but the last sentence was the one that cut into me like knifes. Harry was right - Malfoy had become a Death Eater. I felt my control snap, I stood up and he followed suit.

"So you have the mark now, I don't know why I'm still here talking to a Death Eater. Are you working undercover or are you simply aiming to cause more loss in people's lives?" I spat out glaring at him.

I raised my wand ready to repel any spells that came flying my way but none came. Malfoy's empty eyes stared at me unseeingly for a second before the tears started again he wrapped his arms around himself and his whole body rocked with the dry desperate sobs echoing around the bathroom.

"Don't make me pity you Malfoy, I know what you've been doing."

My words seemed to make something in him snap, the tears disappeared. He gave a cruel, cold laugh.

"You know?" He spat " What do you know Granger? Do you have to live with him, the same house as him? Do you have to walk around the house knowing your every move is being watched? Do you have to go through the blinding pain to get a mark you never wanted - and have to pretend it's a dream come true? Granger, it's easier to pretend to know something you don't than to pretend to know nothing when you know everything."

His words came in long strings, each one a slash from a sharp blade.

"I-," I tried to say something, anything but I was cut off again.

" Do you think I'm completely clueless? That I don't know what's happening outside of these damned walls? That I don't see or hear about the reports of dead bodies, injured people, orphaned children? Do you think I always turn a blind eye to the increasing numbers of students being pulled out of this school? Some of them I knew? No, Granger, I see everything and yet I have to pretend I don't care, If I value my life that's what I have to do."

His words seemed to open a door, a window. I shivered as a chill crept in the room when he finished speaking. I looked at him on the floor again, broken and crying and I didn't know what to do. If the person on the floor was Harry or Ron or Ginny I would've put my arms around them and comforted them but it wasn't. The person on the floor, tears dripping down his face was Malfoy, my enemy of six years. This was the person that had put me and my friends through so much, this persons aunt killed Sirius, this persons father almost drained Ginny of her life, this person never missed a chance to torture Harry or Ron, this person called me a Mudblood. Yet when I saw him there, crying, I forgot all those things, I saw someone who was very much like me and Harry or Ron. I realised then that Malfoy had been through just as much as we have, maybe more. But I also realised that while me and Harry and Ron could talk to each other, Malfoy couldn't tell anyone, I knew now that everything he told me was only because of my timing. Because I asked the questions that would break him, especially when he was so close to his breaking point.

Ignoring six years of name-calling and torture, direct and indirect, I sat down next to him and waited for his response. When he didn't respond I felt the need to say something.

" I understand," I whispered

I watched as his body tensed. Had I said the wrong thing? But then it relaxed.

"Thanks Granger," he muttered quickly, almost inaudible

It felt weird hearing a "thankyou" coming from his lips.

"For what?" I asked

He stood up and cleaned his face and walked towards the exit just as he reached the door he turned around and looked me in the eye.

"For understanding," he said simply

"You're welcome," I said. And despite all the hatred I once felt towards I smiled. A small smile. And to my utter surprise Draco Malfoy smiled back, a small twitch of the lips, but a genuine smile.

"Stay strong Hermione," he whispered.

The request took me by surprise, I recovered quickly.

"You too Draco," I replied

It wasn't until the retreating figure had left the room entirely till I realised something.

He had called me Hermione and I had called him Draco.

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**Thankyou for reading!**

**Tell me what you thought , consructive critisism appreciated**


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